Systems and methods for obtaining wind information

ABSTRACT

A system and method for determining the wind force along the planned trajectory of a projectile are disclosed herein. A drone is flown along the expected path of the trajectory along a set heading. The drone is programmed to maintain the heading. As wind forces act upon the drone during its flight, the drone&#39;s electronic stability system provides automatic power and directional control to one or more motors that control the rotors and propellers that keep the drone aloft. By monitoring the changes in motor or drone state information over time in response to wind forces, the wind can be determined at various locations along the flight path. This information can be provided to a ballistics calculator to determine the launch heading of the projectile.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of filing and right of priority Thisapplication claims the benefit of filing and right of priority to U.S.application Ser. No. 14/231,459, filed on Dec. 22, 2018, and further toU.S. Provisional Application No. 62/751,151 filed on Oct. 26, 2018.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

When an unguided (i.e., ballistic) flying object is released toward aparticular target, the object's path is largely determined by twoforces: gravity and wind. Gravity is a known force, and the onlyvariables needed for determining the effect of gravity are therespective heights of the point of release and the target. The effect ofwind forces, however, are much more difficult to determine. The windforce can change direction and speed quickly. Moreover, for objectsreleased on long trajectories, the wind force may vary over the courseof the trajectory. Therefore, a person trying to hit a target with theunguided object must ideally account not only for the wind force overtime, but also over the range of flight.

Standard ballistic calculators do allow for input regarding the headingand the magnitude of the wind force. However, such wind forces aretypically determined manually by the user. When real-time wind forcereadings are provided by anemometers, these are typically for only oneor two locations (usually, the location of release), and the user mustestimate the wind force elsewhere along the path, or simply apply thewind force at the known location as if it applied along the entire path.

What is needed, then, is a method of real-time acquisition of wind forcedata along the entire planned trajectory path of a flying object inorder to calculate, in real-time or near-real-time, the ideal releasevelocity vector (i.e., heading and speed) of the object.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

According to some embodiments disclosed herein is a method fordetermining launch heading of an object at a launch location to reach atarget, having the steps of providing to a processor a range to thetarget and elevation to the target; flying a drone a first distance on aflight path from the launch location towards the target; obtaining dronestate information, the drone state information comprising a measurementof electrical power supplied to each motor of the drone for at least twolocations along the flight path; transmitting the drone stateinformation to a processor programmed to correlate drone stateinformation to wind data; calculating wind data from the drone stateinformation, the wind data comprising a wind force vector for the atleast two locations along the flight path; setting the launch heading ofthe object in response to the wind data; and launching the object.

According to other embodiments disclosed herein is a system fordetermining launch heading of an object to reach a target, having adrone having an electronic speed control system and a first transceivercapable of transmitting information concerning the electronic speedcontrol system; a second transceiver capable of receiving informationconcerning the electronic speed control system; a processor configuredto execute instructions to process the information concerning theelectronic speed control system to determine a wind speed and headingfor at least two locations along an estimated flight path of the object,and further configured to execute instructions to determine the launchheading using the wind speed and headings for the at least twolocations; and a display to output to a user the launch heading.

SUMMARY OF THE FIGURES

FIGS. 1A and 1B depict a trajectory for a projectile.

FIG. 2 depicts the sighting of a target using a scope.

FIG. 3 depicts a schematic showing the elements of a drone.

FIG. 4 depicts a process according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

FIG. 5 depicts a system for executing the processes disclosed herein,according to an embodiment of the disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF INVENTION

The described systems and techniques may be performed by a computersystem that includes a single computer or more than one computer. Acomputer may be a processor controlled device, such as, by way ofexample, personal computers, workstations, servers, clients,mini-computers, main-frame computers, laptop computers, smart phones,tablets, a network of one or more individual computers, mobilecomputers, portable computers, handheld computers, palm top computers,set top boxes for a TV, interactive televisions, interactive kiosks,personal digital assistants, interactive wireless devices, or anycombination thereof.

A computer may be a uniprocessor or multiprocessor machine. Accordingly,a computer may include one or more processors and, thus, theaforementioned computer system may also include one or more processors.Examples of processors include sequential state machines,microprocessors, microcontrollers, graphics processing units (GPUs),central processing units (CPUs), application processors, digital signalprocessors (DSPs), reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processors,systems on a chip (SoC), baseband processors, field programmable gatearrays (FPGAs), programmable logic devices (PLDs), gated logic, andother suitable hardware configured to perform the various functionalitydescribed throughout this disclosure.

Additionally, the computer may include one or more memories.Accordingly, the aforementioned computer systems may include one or morememories. A memory may include a memory storage device or an addressablestorage medium which may include, by way of example, random accessmemory (RAM), static random access memory (SRAM), dynamic random accessmemory (DRAM), electronically erasable programmable read-only memory(EEPROM), programmable read-only memory (PROM), erasable programmableread-only memory (EPROM), hard disks, floppy disks, laser disk players,digital video disks, compact disks, video tapes, audio tapes, magneticrecording tracks, magnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) memory, optical memorystorage, quantum mechanical storage, electronic networks, and/or otherdevices or technologies used to store electronic content such asprograms and data.

In particular, the one or more memories may store computer executableinstructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, causethe one or more processors to implement the procedures and techniquesdescribed herein. The one or more processors may be operably associatedwith the one or more memories so that the computer executableinstructions can be provided to the one or more processors forexecution. For example, the one or more processors may be operablyassociated to the one or more memories through one or more buses.Furthermore, the computer may possess or may be operably associated withinput devices (e.g., a keyboard, a keypad, controller, a mouse, amicrophone, a touch screen, a sensor) and output devices such as (e.g.,a computer screen, printer, or a speaker).

The computer may execute an appropriate operating system such as LINUX®,UNIX®, MICROSOFT® WINDOWS®, APPLE® MACOS®, IBM® OS/2®, ANDROID, andPALM® OS, and/or the like. The computer may advantageously be equippedwith a network communication device such as a network interface card, amodem, or other network connection device suitable for connecting to oneor more networks.

A computer may advantageously contain control logic, or program logic,or other substrate configuration representing data and instructions,which cause the computer to operate in a specific and predefined manneras, described herein. In particular, the computer programs, whenexecuted, enable a control processor to perform and/or cause theperformance of features of the present disclosure. The control logic mayadvantageously be implemented as one or more modules. The modules mayadvantageously be configured to reside on the computer memory andexecute on the one or more processors. The modules include, but are notlimited to, software or hardware components that perform certain tasks.Thus, a module may include, by way of example, components, such as,software components, processes, functions, subroutines, procedures,attributes, class components, task components, object-oriented softwarecomponents, segments of program code, drivers, firmware, micro-code,circuitry, data, and/or the like.

The control logic conventionally includes the manipulation of digitalbits by the processor and the maintenance of these bits within memorystorage devices resident in one or more of the memory storage devices.Such memory storage devices may impose a physical organization upon thecollection of stored data bits, which are generally stored by specificelectrical or magnetic storage cells.

The control logic generally performs a sequence of computer-executedsteps. These steps generally require manipulations of physicalquantities. Usually, although not necessarily, these quantities take theform of electrical, magnetic, or optical signals capable of beingstored, transferred, combined, compared, or otherwise manipulated. It isconventional for those skilled in the art to refer to these signals asbits, values, elements, symbols, characters, text, terms, numbers,files, or the like. It should be kept in mind, however, that these andsome other terms should be associated with appropriate physicalquantities for computer operations, and that these terms are merelyconventional labels applied to physical quantities that exist within andduring operation of the computer based on designed relationships betweenthese physical quantities and the symbolic values they represent.

It should be understood that manipulations within the computer are oftenreferred to in terms of adding, comparing, moving, searching, or thelike, which are often associated with manual operations performed by ahuman operator. It is to be understood that no involvement of the humanoperator may be necessary, or even desirable. The operations describedherein are machine operations performed in conjunction with the humanoperator or user that interacts with the computer or computers.

It should also be understood that the programs, modules, processes,methods, and the like, described herein are but an exemplaryimplementation and are not related, or limited, to any particularcomputer, apparatus, or computer language. Rather, various types ofgeneral purpose computing machines or devices may be used with programsconstructed in accordance with some of the teachings described herein.In some embodiments, very specific computing machines, with specificfunctionality, may be required. Similarly, it may prove advantageous toconstruct a specialized apparatus to perform the method steps describedherein by way of dedicated computer systems with hard-wired logic orprograms stored in nonvolatile memory, such as, by way of example,read-only memory (ROM).

In some embodiments, features of the computer systems can be implementedprimarily in hardware using, for example, hardware components such asapplication specific integrated circuits (ASICs) or field-programmablegated arrays (FPGAs). Implementation of the hardware circuitry will beapparent to persons skilled in the relevant art(s). In yet anotherembodiment, features of the computer systems can be implemented using acombination of both general-purpose hardware and software.

FIGS. 1A and 1B depict the typical trajectory 3 of an object in unguided(i.e., ballistic) flight. An object is released or launched from thelaunch point 1 having a launch speed and heading. As a general matter,the launch heading is aimed higher than the height of the target 2 toaccount for gravity acting on the object during flight. The angulardifference 8 between being level with the horizon and the actual launchheading is known as the elevation angle 8. The launch heading is alsodirected into the wind so that as the object travels along thetrajectory 3, the wind force pushes the object back towards the target.The wind force is shown as the arrow point from right to left in FIG.1B. The horizontal change in angle 9 to account for the wind force isknown as the azimuth angle 9 (also known in some contexts as the windageangle). The launch heading is the combined elevation 8 and azimuth 9angles. FIG. 2 provides a view of the trajectory from the launch pointas may be seen using a scope with crosshairs, showing the elevation 8and azimuth 9 relative to the target.

FIG. 1 also shows other parameters of the trajectory that may be used inthe calculation of a trajectory 3 by a ballistic calculator 60. Thehorizontal distance from the launch point to the target is the range 4.The vertical distance from the launch point to the target is theelevation 5. The straight-line distance 6 from the launch point to thetarget is the hypotenuse of a right triangle formed with the elevation 5and the range 4 as the two shorter sides of the triangle. The highestpoint that the flying object reaches as it travels along the ballisticflight path from launch point to target is known variously as the apex,apogee, or max ordinate 7.

A wind force is typically provided as a vector having two quantities, aheading (or direction) and a magnitude. For wind, the heading may begiven in cardinal directions (e.g., north, south, east, and west);degrees, minutes of arc (moa) or milliradians (mils or mrad) based onabsolute direction (e.g., where true north is 0 degrees, east is 90degrees, south is 180 degrees, and west is 270 degrees); or degreesbased on a direction relative to another standard (e.g., 0 degrees isthe direction that a person is currently facing, or the direction of atarget). Although a magnitude of any given force is typically stated inpounds or newtons, colloquially wind force magnitude is more oftenstated in terms of the air speed of the wind (e.g., in miles per hour,kilometers per hour, or knots). These respective measurement systems areconvertible between each other, and any of combination of them may beused in describing a given wind force vector. Where a wind force headingor magnitude are referenced for use in or with the disclosed systems andmethods herein, it is to be understood that these methods of stating ordescribing the wind force vector as to its heading and magnitude may bedepicted or used in any manner as described here or otherwise used incolloquial understanding in a given field or industry.

To determine the wind force along a planned trajectory, a person mayfirst direct an unmanned drone 10 (also known as an unmanned aerialvehicle or UAV) along the general path of the trajectory. In someembodiments, the drone may be a multi-rotor vehicle, such as aquadcopter or octocopter. In other embodiments the drone may be asingle-rotor helicopter. In other embodiments the drone may be afixed-wing drone such as an unmanned airplane. The drone may be capableof vertical take-off and lift (VTOL) flight and hovering capability. Thedrone may carry cameras or scanning devices 34, which may be used by theoperator for various reasons in addition to or in combination with thetargeting capabilities described herein.

More particularly, a drone may be a multi-rotor drone 10 such as aquadcopter or octocopter of the kind schematically depicted in FIG. 3.In a multi-rotor drone, each rotor is connected to an individualelectrical motor 40.

Additionally, a drone 40 includes a flight controller 12 having acomputer processing unit (CPU) 14, memory 16, and hard disk permanentstorage 18. The CPU may be augmented by a graphics processor unit (GPU).Alternatively the GPU may in some instances replace a CPU. The flightcontroller 12 may store software programs or routines that control theoperation of the drone and respond to directions provided by the droneoperator or information gathered by sensors on the drone 10.

The drone 10 also includes an inertial measurement unit (IMU) 22. An IMUis a package of various types of sensors used to measure and report theangular rate and acceleration of a body. This may be used to determinethe location of the body, such as a drone. An IMU usually includes at aset of accelerometers 24 and gyroscopes 26. In a typical IMU, there arethree accelerometers 24 a, 24 b, and 24 c configured to determineacceleration in the x-, y-, and z-directions. In addition, a typical IMUincludes three gyroscopes 26 a, 26 b, and 26 c configured to determinerotation according to the roll, pitch, and yaw. The IMU sensors areconfigured to determine the linear and angular acceleration at aparticular point in time and provide that information to the flightcontroller 12. An IMU may also include magnetometers which enable to theIMU to measure the Earth's magnetic field at its location. As such, themagnetometer can act as a digital magnetic compass and provide oraugment the determination of the heading of the drone (and in particularthe yaw of the drone). The IMU may also be integrated with, or be ableto coordinate with, a global positioning system (GPS)-enabled device.For purposes of this application, an IMU is understood to include atleast accelerometers and gyroscopes and may include other sensingdevices, such as a magnetometer. The IMU may also coordinate with anonboard GPS receiver or system, but the GPS is identified separatelyfrom the IMU.

Most drones typically have a GPS satellite receiver 28 for determiningthe geolocation of the drone and for various applications in droneflight. Other sensors 34 may also be provided in the drone 10. Suchsensors may include (but are not limited to) magnetometers, opticalsensors, cameras, and sonar sensors or other sound-sensing devices. Theflight controller 12 may also include or rely on information provided byother types of sensors in determining the flight direction or providinginformation back to the operator.

The flight controller 12 also may be connected to a transceiver 30 forreceiving instructions on flight direction from a remote controllerhandled by an operator of the drone, and for communicating informationto the operator or the operator's flight control device. The transceivershown in the embodiment in FIG. 3 is also connected to an antenna 32.

The flight controller 12 and IMU 22 are connected to electronic speedcontrollers (ESC). An ESC is a modulator that governs the power inputprovided to a given motor 40. As depicted in FIG. 3, an ESC 38 isprovided for each separate motor 40. However, in other embodiments asingle ESC 38 may govern the power input provided to all of the motors40. The ESC 38 may receive instructions from the flight controller 12 togovern the power input to the motor 40. Accordingly, an ESC may have alimited processor for receiving instructions from the flight controllerand implementing the power modulation as determined by the flightcontroller. In other embodiments, if the ESC processor is sufficientlyrobust to perform complex software routines, the ESC may perform some ofthe flight controller calculations that would otherwise be performed bythe flight controller. It should be understood that such actions androutines performed by the flight controller referenced below may takeplace specifically on the flight controller processor 14, or they mayoccur on other processors as designed by the drone manufacturer oroperator. For the sake of simplicity, such actions will be referred toas being done by the flight controller below.

Each of the motors 40, ESCs 38, flight controller 12, IMU 22, othersensors 34, GPS receiver 28, and transceiver 30 are powered by anonboard power source such as a battery 36.

Commercially available multi-rotor drones (such as the MAVIC®) can becontrolled by the operator to fly along a desired flight path or tohover in the air. To maintain a chosen heading or hover at a location,the flight controller, in reliance on the inertial data provided by theIMU and any additional sensors 34 and/or the GPS receiver 28, senseswhen it is being moved off the desired heading, such as when being actedupon by a wind force. To counteract the wind force, the flightcontroller processor 14 is programmed to instruct changes to theelectrical power provided to each motor 40, thereby increasing ordecreasing the rotor speed. These controls can react very quickly to anynew forces, such as variable wind forces along a path.

The flight controller 12 and, by instruction from the flight controller,the ESCs 38 will react in substantially the same manner each time thedrone 10 is acted upon by a substantially identical force. For example,a 10 mile-per-hour crosswind blowing perpendicularly to the courseheading of the drone 10 will cause the flight controller and associatedsystems to react by altering the motor power for each rotor to provide aforce counteracting the force created by the wind in order to maintainthe programmed heading. Thus, by monitoring the speed and heading of thedrone 10, and the power input for each electrical motor 40, it ispossible to derive the wind force (both its magnitude and direction)acting upon the drone 10. Because the magnitude of the force is directlyrelated to the speed of the wind acting upon the drone 10, the windspeed may also be determined.

Exemplary methods of determining the wind force are described further inX. Xiang, et al., “Wind Field Estimation Through Autonomous QuadcopterAvionics,” 2016 IEEE/AIAA 35th Digital Avionics Systems Conference(DASC) (2016), which is incorporated by reference herein. The stateinformation may include the position (i.e., location in a Cartesianplane) and attitude (i.e., the angular orientation of the drone usingthe Euler angles roll, pitch, and yaw) of the drone, the linear andangular velocity of the drone, and the total thrust created by thetorque on each of the 4 rotors of the quadcopter. Other information fordetermining wind speed may include the mass of the drone and the dragcoefficient of the drone. Using this information, the drag force on thedrone can be determined using linear algebra techniques such as thosedescribed in Xiang et al. Once the drag force is known, the wind speedand heading can be determined. This would be a direct method fordetermining wind force.

Another method, also described in X. Xiang et al., is to use aniterative Kalman filter to determine the wind speed. There are multiplevariations of the Kalman filter, but a basic Kalman filter uses thestate information of a system at prior time k−1 to predict theperformance of the system at the current time k. The basic equation fora Kalman filter of a system is: x_(k)=F_(k)*x_(k−1)+B_(k)*u_(k)+w_(k).The x vector is the state vector for the variables of interest (i.e.,wind magnitude and heading) at a given time (i.e., time k or k−1). Thematrix F_(k) is the state transition matrix that applies the systemeffects to the state vector at the prior time k−1, as such effects occurduring the time period that elapses from k−1 to k. The matrix B_(k) isthe control input matrix that applies any control inputs (set forth invector u_(k)) applied at time k to the system. Vector w_(k) is the noisevector in order to calibrate the system and counter any noise in thesensors. Other Kalman filter models, including nonlinear models, mayalso be used.

Other sensors present on the drone, such as the GPS receiver 28, may beused to augment the calculations. For example, relying solely on theaccelerometer and gyroscope measurements provided by an IMU 22 mayresult in inaccurate determinations over time. This is because verysmall errors in early measurements become compounded as the mathematicaldetermination of location on the basis of inertial measurements alone isiterated hundreds or even thousands of times over time. Even errorswithin the error tolerance of an accurate and calibrated IMU can resultin substantial inaccuracy given a sufficient number of iterations.Accordingly, other sensors such as a visual sensor or magnetometer, orinformation provided by a GPS transceiver, can be used to augment theinertial sensors and determine a more accurate location for the drone.By accurately determining the drone's location, the wind informationthat is derived can be accurately mapped to a particular location andused in the ballistics calculator described further below.

Using the drone state information and drone location, an operator tryingto determine the launch heading for launch or release of a flyingunguided object may derive the wind speed along an estimated trajectoryin the following exemplary manner and as shown in an embodiment processin FIG. 4.

First, an operator or user may determine a target 100 and the target'srange and elevation. The target range and elevation are input into aballistic calculator 60. Target range and elevation may be acquired byany number of means. For example, the target range and elevation may beknown to the operator as having already been previously determined, andthe operator may input them manually. In other embodiments the targetrange and elevation may be estimated by the operator and then inputmanually. In other embodiments the target range and elevation may beobtained by optical measurement, such as by range-finding binoculars. Inother embodiments, the target range and elevation may be determined by alaser-sighting device. Where the range and elevation are determined bythe use of equipment (e.g., range-finding binoculars or a laser-sightingdevice), the range and elevation may be communicated directly from theequipment to the processor operating the ballistic calculator usingradio, wireless, or other telecommunication technology as is known inthe art.

Once the target range and elevation are provided, the operator maydirect a drone to fly towards the target location 110. In someembodiments, the drone may flight on a straight-line path from thelaunch point to the target. In other embodiments, the drone may fly on avertically curved path to account for the effect of gravity on theintended object to be released. In other embodiments the drone may flyon a horizontally curved path to account for estimated wind effects,which may be done if the wind at the launch point is known or estimated.In other embodiments the drone may fly along the estimated trajectorypath or portions of the path more than once, each time iterativelygathering information to evaluate the wind force and progressively getcloser to a calculated trajectory path for the flying object. In otherembodiments the drone may fly along a subset portion of the path. Forexample, the drone may fly only as far as the downrange distance of theapex. In other embodiments the drone may fly to a point between the apexand the target, for example, approximately half way between the apex andthe target. In other embodiments the drone may fly to a particularlocation and then hover. Any of these various modes may be determinedand entered into the drone flight plan information prior to the drone'stake-off. Alternatively the operator may direct the drone manually.

As the drone flies along the selected flight path, the drone processorcollects information regarding the state of the drone 120, i.e., dronestate information. In some embodiments the drone state information mayinclude the speed and/or acceleration of the drone. In some embodimentsthe drone state information may include the heading and/or angularvelocity or acceleration of the drone. In some embodiments the dronestate information may include the power supplied to each motor of thedrone. These parameters within the drone state information may becollected individually or in combination with each other or othercharacteristics.

In some embodiments the drone state information may be sampledperiodically. The sample periods may be any desired sampling rate, e.g.,on the order of milliseconds, fractions of a second, seconds, ormultiple seconds. In other embodiments the information may be gatheredbased on a determined distance downrange the drone has flown, e.g.,every 1 yard, every 5 yards, every 10 yards, every 1 meter, every 5meters, or every 10 meters, etc. It is understood that a person of skillcould select any period or distance interval as desired for sampling thedrone state information. In other embodiments the drone stateinformation may be logged continuously.

Drone state information may also be obtained by other means. Forexample, when the drone flight control system is turned off, notfunctioning properly, or unable to completely respond to a given windforce (e.g., in very windy conditions), the drone may drift positionallydue to wind forces. Positional drift may be determined by GPS receivers.By determining the amount, direction, and/or rate of positional driftover time, the wind speed and direction at a given location can becalculated, similar to the manner set forth herein. Accordingly, insituations where a known heading and speed for the drone cannot bemaintained due to either an inactive or malfunctioning ESC system orvery high winds, the positional drift from that planned heading canstill allow for the determination of wind speed, either alone or inconjunction with the ESC system performance and output. Therefore, dronestate information may also include either an absolute position or adetermination of relative change in position or drift over time.

The primary limitation on the amount of drone state information that maybe stored or logged is the amount of information that may be stored inthe memory or hard drive space on the drone and the rate at which suchinformation may be transmitted to the processor programmed to operatethe ballistics calculator.

Next the drone state information is used to calculate the wind speed143. The wind force calculation may take place at any convenientprocessor. The drone state information may be used to calculate the windforce at any number of locations between the launch point and thetarget. The wind force includes at least the wind speed and the headingof the wind at a given location. The processor may determine the windforce at any given range and elevation using the drone state informationand the linear algebra or Kalman filter methods described above. Othermethods for determining the wind speed from the drone state informationmay also be used.

In some embodiments the processor may determine the wind force for everyfive yards or meters from the launch point to the target. Other rangeintervals may also be used (e.g, every 1 yard, every 10 yards, every 20yards, every 1 meter, every 10 meters, every 50 meters, etc.). In otherembodiments the processor may determine the wind force only for somelocations along the flight path as determined by the user. In otherembodiments the wind force may be determined only for a subset of thepath (e.g., for the portion of the range up to the apex of the flyingobject).

This particular action may depend on where the processor operating theballistics calculator is located. In some embodiments the ballisticscalculator may be programmed to operate on the processor onboard thedrone. In such embodiments the drone state information may be providedimmediately to the ballistics calculator for performing the ballisticscalculation. In such cases only the launch coordinates or launch headingangles need to be transferred back to the user for implementing thelaunch heading angles for the object's launch.

In other embodiments the ballistics calculator may be saved to a harddisk space on a personal programmable device accessible to the user.Such a programmable device might be a smart phone, tablet computer,laptop computer, or other mobile device. In these embodiments the dronestate information must be transferred from the drone to the ballisticscalculator.

In some embodiments the transfer of the information (whether launchheading information or drone state information) may be performed bystoring the information on a removable hard disk (e.g., a flash drive,memory stick, or other data storage device), flying the drone back tothe launch point, removing the information stored on a removable harddisk, and connecting the removable hard disk to the personalprogrammable device. In other embodiments the information may becommunicated from the drone processor to the personal programmabledevice by means of a wireless transmission from the drone to thepersonal programmable device. This may be done by radio transmission,wireless digital transmission, BLUETOOTH® connection, or any othermethod for conveying information in a wireless manner.

The wind force may then be used by the ballistics calculator tocalculate the launch heading, in conjunction with other informationsupplied by the user (such as range, elevation, drag characteristics ofthe flying ballistic object, initial speed of the flying ballisticobject, planned acceleration or deceleration of the flying ballisticobject (e.g., by thrusters, parachutes, sails, or other devices formodifying the velocity of the flying ballistic object for a given periodof time), etc.) 140.

Once the ballistics calculator determines a launch heading, the headingis implemented on the launch apparatus for the flying object to orientthe launcher to the desired heading 150. In some embodiments this may beperformed by the user manually adjusting the elevation and azimuthangles of the launcher. In other embodiments, the launch headinginformation may be electronically communicated to the launcher, whichmay automatically orient the launcher to the provided orientation.

Once the launcher is in the orientation provided by the ballisticscalculator, the flying object may be released or launched 160.

It will be understood that not all steps need be taken in a givenscenario. For example, the drone state information may be supplieddirectly to the ballistics calculator and a heading determined withoutthe intermediate step of directly determining the wind force magnitudeand heading. Also, the drone may have previously gathered informationregarding wind force in a general area or region prior to thedetermination of a particular, specific target. In that case, theoperator may rely on the previously provided drone state informationrather than determining new drone state information and wind forceinformation by flying the drone after the determination of the target.Other steps may also be modified or optionally omitted in particularcircumstances.

Systems to perform the above actions are also provided herein and asshown in an embodiment of FIG. 5. In some embodiments, the system mayinclude a drone 10 for obtaining information regarding the wind forcealong the path. The drone may be a multirotor drone having one motor perrotor. The drone 10 may include a flight controller system 12 formaintaining a desired speed and heading by manipulating the engine powersupply in response to forces acting on the drone, e.g., wind forces. Thedrone 10 further includes ESCs 38 for operating the motors 40 accordingto the information gathered by the IMU 22 and/or directions provided bythe flight controller 12. The processor is programmed to manipulate themotor power supply adjustments based on the information gathered by theflight controller system 12, as described above with reference to FIG.3.

A ballistics calculator 60 may also be provided. The ballisticscalculator is a set of programmed instructions stored on a non-transientmedia. The ballistics calculator may be stored on the drone hard driveor on a personal programmable device 50. Such a personal programmabledevice may also include a display 52 for depicting to the userinformation relating to the drone state information, the wind force, thelaunch heading, or any other information the drone operator may findrelevant, and to allow the operator to perform actions relating to thecalculation of the launch heading. The personal programmable device maystore the ballistics calculator software instructions in the hard drivedisk space 58. The personal programmable device may also include aprocessor 54 and a memory 56. The personal programmable device may alsoinclude a transceiver for communicating with the drone 10 and/or thelauncher 64.

A launcher 64 for the object is also provided. The launcher 64 ismovable to the calculated launch elevation and azimuth angles. Thelauncher 64 may be in direct electronic communication with the processor(e.g., by a transceiver 68) performing the ballistics calculatorinstructions such that the launch coordinates may be communicated to aprocessor on the launcher 64. The processor 66 on the launcher directsthe launcher to the calculated launch coordinates.

It is to be understood that any given elements of the disclosedembodiments of the invention may be embodied in a single structure, asingle step, a single substance, or the like. Similarly, a given elementof the disclosed embodiment may be embodied in multiple structures,steps, substances, or the like.

The foregoing description illustrates and describes the processes,machines, manufactures, compositions of matter, and other teachings ofthe present disclosure. Additionally, the disclosure shows and describesonly certain embodiments of the processes, machines, manufactures,compositions of matter, and other teachings disclosed, but, as mentionedabove, it is to be understood that the teachings of the presentdisclosure are capable of use in various other combinations,modifications, and environments and are capable of changes ormodifications within the scope of the teachings as expressed herein,commensurate with the skill and/or knowledge of a person having ordinaryskill in the relevant art. The embodiments described hereinabove arefurther intended to explain certain best modes known of practicing theprocesses, machines, manufactures, compositions of matter, and otherteachings of the present disclosure and to enable others skilled in theart to utilize the teachings of the present disclosure in such, orother, embodiments and with the various modifications required by theparticular applications or uses. Accordingly, the processes, machines,manufactures, compositions of matter, and other teachings of the presentdisclosure are not intended to limit the exact embodiments and examplesdisclosed herein. Any section headings herein are provided only forconsistency with the suggestions of 37 C.F.R. § 1.77 or otherwise toprovide organizational queues. These headings shall not limit orcharacterize the invention(s) set forth herein.

We claim:
 1. A method for determining launch heading of an object at alaunch location to reach a target, the method comprising: receiving at aprocessor information concerning operations of an electronic speedcontrol system of a first drone, at a first location and a secondlocation along an estimated flight path of the object; calculating awind speed and heading for the at least two locations along theestimated flight path; and setting the launch heading of a launcher ofthe object based on the wind speed and heading for the first and secondlocations.
 2. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step oflaunching the object.
 3. The method of claim 1 wherein the processor islocated on the first drone, and further comprising the step oftransmitting the launch heading from the processor to the launcher. 4.The method of claim 1 wherein the processor is located on the launcher.5. The method of claim 1 wherein the processor is located on a handhelddevice of a person in operable control of the launcher.
 6. A method fordetermining launch heading of an object at a launch location to reach atarget, the method comprising: receiving at a processor informationconcerning operations of a first electronic speed control system of afirst drone at a first location and of a second electronic speed controlsystem of a second drone at second location along an estimated flightpath of the object; calculating a wind speed and heading for the atleast two locations along the estimated flight path; and setting thelaunch heading of a launcher of the object based on the wind speed andheading for the first and second locations.
 7. The method of claim 6further comprising the step of launching the object.
 8. The method ofclaim 6 wherein the processor is located on the first drone, and furthercomprising the step of transmitting the launch heading from theprocessor to the launcher.
 9. The method of claim 6 wherein theprocessor is located on the launcher.
 10. The method of claim 6 whereinthe processor is located on a handheld device of a person in operablecontrol of the launcher.
 11. A system comprising for determining launchheading of an object to reach a target, the system comprising: at leastone drone, each drone having an electronic speed control system; aprocessor configured to execute instructions to process informationreceived from at least one electronic control system of at least onedrone to determine a wind speed and a heading for at least two locationsalong an estimated flight path of the object; and a launcher configuredto set a launch heading based on the wind speed and heading for the atleast two locations.
 12. The system of claim 11 wherein the launcherfurther comprises a ballistics calculator.
 13. The system of claim 11wherein a first drone of the at least one drones further comprises aballistics calculator.
 14. The system of claim 11 further comprising ahandheld device operable by a person in control of the launcher and incommunication with the processor and the launcher, the handheld devicecomprising a ballistics calculator.
 15. The system of claim 11 whereinthe processor is a ballistics calculator.
 16. The system of claim 11wherein the processor is located on a first drone of the at least onedrones.
 17. The system of claim 11 wherein the processor is located onthe launcher.
 18. The system of claim 11 wherein the processor islocated on a handheld device operable by a person in control of thelauncher and in communication with the processor.
 19. The system ofclaim 11, wherein the processor is configured to process informationreceived from a first electronic control system of a first drone of theat least one drones and from a second electronic control system of asecond drone of the at least one drones, wherein the informationreceived from the first electronic control system concerns a firstlocation of the at least two locations and the information received fromthe second electronic control system concerns a second location of theat least two locations.